Lowest Point
by LaughingSenselessly
Summary: Post Book 3: Korra's been through some big trauma and is struggling with depression after being destroyed on the inside and out during the Red Lotus Showdown. Mako comes by to see how she's doing. ONE SHOT. Makorra. (God that finale was good!)


Korra stared across the shoreline that seemed to stretch for miles. A week after Jinora's ceremony, Tenzin had suggested a stay on Ember Island. A sort of break for Korra, Mako, Asami and Bolin to just relax and unwind for a few days.

Today, she had slowly wheeled herself away from the Pai Sho game between Bolin and Asami and made her way here. She loathed the fact that it was so difficult for her to move herself. The day was so, so incredibly bright. In the distance, she could faintly hear the tinkling sounds of children's laughter.

But all that happiness seemed only to make her own emptiness more evident.

She tapped her wheelchair armrest restlessly with one hand, the other hand idly bending a piece of metal she had found into different shapes. Even this exercise was tiring for her, but she soldiered on, not wanting to be weak.

Or at least, not more weak than she already was. She still couldn't move her legs; even now she concentrated hard on tapping her foot, but nothing happened. She knew the possible effects of the poison- she'd heard the doctors whispering- her body might never be the same again. And she knew what the others thought. The way they all looked at her- the way they talked to her, with sympathy- like they knew she was going to be in that chair the rest of her life.

She found herself bitterly envying the Air Nation, who had started their journey freely wandering the world. Helping to restore balance. Doing all the jobs the Avatar used to do. But as she was painfully beginning to understand, the Avatar was becoming less relevant by the day.

_She_ was becoming less relevant by the day.

That revelation had brought tears to her eyes on the day of Jinora's ceremony. The sadness had been too much to bear, but now there was nothing at all inside and she wished for it again, just so that she could feel something, _anything_. Almost absentmindedly, her hand bended the piece of metal into a sharp spike. She made it a little sharper.

Months ago, the thought of suicide would never have even crossed her mind. It was a selfish thing to do. But now perhaps the selfish thing to do was to keep on living. The Avatar, stuck in a wheelchair- she huffed to herself- how could she help anyone? Perhaps the right thing to do now would be to end her life and allow Raava to move on to a new body. An uninjured, untainted person who could _walk_. Someone who could actually do the Avatar's work rather than sitting around being a useless invalid and wasting everyone's time.

That sharp piece of metal in her palm seemed so tantalizing all of a sudden...

She heard footsteps crunching through the dirt.

Smoothly, she covered the metal with her fingers, forming it into a small, dense ball held in her fist, then turning her fist over.

"...Hey," said Mako behind her.

She clenched that ball of metal a little more tightly in her fist. "Hi," she replied, trying to sound upbeat. Trying to sound normal.

Mako came to a stop beside her- a few feet away, in her peripheral vision. She wished she had the energy to turn her head. Instead she tried to move her foot again. No avail.

"You stopped watching the Pai Sho match," he said.

"Yeah," replied Korra, eyeing the sunset still. "It got kind of boring after the hundredth match."

He chuckled. "That too."

A silence fell. Korra smiled inwardly at his awkwardness. This wasn't the awkwardness from everyone else upon seeing her in the chair- no, it was his own after breaking up with her. Back when everything seemed more okay.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked finally, seriously.

She decided to be blunt. "You being awkward after our break up."

She didn't have to see Mako's face to know he seized up like he sometimes did. When he finally spoke, his voice was quite uncomfortable. "Um... okay..." He cleared his throat and kicked at a rock in the sand. "Sorry."

"Don't be," she replied, and she didn't have to fake the lightness in her tone. "You redeemed yourself. Mostly."

"No, really," he insisted; Korra was tickled at his insistence in making a fool of himself but allowed him to continue for her own amusement. "That was... weird. Of me," he clarified. Then sighed. "I'm still being awkward, aren't I?"

Korra didn't answer. She found it adorable.

"You just caught me off guard. I thought something else would be on your mind." In her peripheral vision she saw him rub the back of his head. "You've seemed so sad lately. So distant."

Korra's light demeanor vanished.

Maybe he didn't see, because he kept going. "It's just... it hurts to see you like this. You're usually so happy and lighthearted, and I don't know, full of life somehow. You're always cracking jokes and brightening up everybody's day." His voice had softened from its initial discomfort. "It's why I..." He trailed off. "Anyway. We miss you, Korra. I know you're having a hard time right now and there are a lot of reasons why. But I just want to see you _smile_ again."

Korra didn't reply.

She heard him sigh. "I messed this up, didn't I?" He turned around. There was a pause where she was sure he was looking at her one more time. "I know you want to be alone right now. But if you want, we're all just up the hill." She heard a smile in his voice. "And if you're feeling up to it, maybe you and _I_ can play a game of Pai Sho."

He didn't wait for an answer. Korra closed her eyes to the dying sun as she heard his fading footsteps crunch away.

He was the only one. The only one that didn't try to reassure her about her physical condition as the Avatar. As if that was the only thing that mattered about her. She knew they meant well, but still. Mako talked to her normally- not with sympathy or condescension. He probably hadn't intended it, but he had just shown her a reason that she had value beyond being the world's Avatar.

That she had value just being _Korra_.

She opened her eyes and tried to move her foot. Wriggle her toe. Anything. She concentrated so hard that her eyes might have crossed. But her leg wouldn't move.

But for some reason, she didn't mind just now. She opened her fist and let the ball of metal drop into the sand.

And she sat in the dying daylight, no longer thinking on past failures, but instead on a strategy to decimate Mako at Pai Sho.

**A/N: Whaddaya think, guys? My first Korra fic. I love reviews, it would make my day if y'all left one. :)**


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